CCPR/C/125/D/2556/2015
Article of the Optional Protocol:
5 (2) (b)
1.1
The author of the communication is Fulmati Nyaya,1 a national of Nepal, born in
1987, and a member of the indigenous Tharu community. She claims that the State party
has violated her rights under articles 2, 3, 7, 8 (3) (a), 9, 10 (1), 17, 23 (1), 24 (1) and 26 of
the Covenant. The Optional Protocol entered into force for the State on 14 August 1991.
1.2
On 27 January 2015, pursuant to rule 97 of its rules of procedure, the Committee,
acting through its Special Rapporteur on new communications and interim measures,
decided to examine the admissibility of the communication together with the merits.
The facts as presented by the author
2.1
The author notes that the facts of the present communication must be read in the
context of the decade-long armed conflict in Nepal (1996 to 2006).
2.2
The author was born in the Kailali District in far-western Nepal. On 2 April 2002,
when the author was 14 years old, 2 300 members of the Royal Nepalese Army and the
Armed Police Force3 entered her village allegedly looking for Maoists. Soldiers mistook the
author for her elder sister – Ms. Kantimati,4 who had joined the Maoist party the previous
year – and arrested her. She was dragged into a truck, blindfolded, handcuffed and taken to
the Bakimalika Battalion of the Armed Police Force in Banbehda, Kailali District. In the
truck, the author was sexually assaulted by a group of six to seven soldiers, who touched
various parts of her body, including her breast, thighs and bottom. On the same day, the
security forces also arrested her friend, Ms. Junkiri. 5
2.3
Later that day, the author and other detainees were taken to the army barracks in
Teghari. The author was detained incommunicado. During the first nine days of her
detention, she was held in a large hall with 80 to 90 other detainees, both men and women,
in very poor hygienic conditions. She hardly had anything to eat. A major asked the soldiers
to bring the detainees to his office one by one for interviews. For four days, she was
regularly taken from the hall for such interviews. The interrogations took place two or three
times a day, generally in the evenings, and she was blindfolded most of the time.
2.4
During her detention, the author was raped and subjected to other forms of sexual
violence, including forced nudity, insertion of objects into her vagina and other sexual
assaults. She was also subjected to beatings, kicking, punching, prolonged blindfolding and
handcuffing, threats, insulting and denigrating language and coerced extraction of
confessions. Following the rape, she was not able to urinate and was bleeding profusely.
The bleeding lasted for a week and she did not receive any medical assistance or treatment.
The Major who raped her threatened to kill her if she told anybody about what had
happened.
2.5
The author was detained at the army barracks in Teghari from 2 to 11 April 2002.
Then she was transferred back to the Bakimalika Battalion of the Armed Police Force in
Banbehda together with Ms. Junkiri. They were detained in a very small dark room without
windows, mattresses, blankets or beds. During that period, she was again raped and
subjected to other forms of sexual violence. The Superintendent of the Police always called
her for interrogation during the day; after three or four days, he asked for the removal of her
blindfold. Moreover, the female detainees, including the author, were verbally abused and
forced to do work in the barracks, such as carrying bricks and sand, making cement for the
construction of a temple and watering the garden.
2.6
Over a month and a half after her detention, the author’s father, Hira Bahadur,6 went
to the barracks of the Armed Police Force and finally found the author after having
1
2
3
4
5
6
2
The author is using a pseudonym for the communication.
At that time, the author was attending school (eighth grade).
The Armed Police Force was a paramilitary police force established by the Government by way of
ordinance, under the operational control of the Royal Nepalese Army.
Pseudonym.
Pseudonym.
Pseudonym.